2016

HAWAII TRIP

DAY 1

FLIGHT TO HAWAII

The flight to Hawaii was better than I thought it would be. We flew first to Seattle, switched planes there and headed to Maui! Ruby slept most of the first flight. Nate got us comfort seats (they have a little more room than coach, but aren't first class). That made it really nice for this pregnant lady!

The flight from Seattle to Maui was about 6 hours. I brought lots of things for Ruby to do while on the flight (play dough, coloring books, her tablet, toys, snacks, etc.) it still didn't seem like enough! That girl is busy!

WE MADE IT!

When we flew in Nate was commenting about how rural Maui looked. There were a lot of farms and open land. It wasn't what we expected. After all day of flying Ruby was so happy to run!

After getting our rental car we still had to drive another hour to our hotel. Our first stop was L&L BBQ at this little mall area.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Resort in Kaanapali. It was right on the Kaanapali beach.

We took a beach stroll that night and let Ruby stick her toes in the ocean. She LOVED it! She didn't want to leave. The stars were amazing to see also. It was just so beautiful and peaceful.

DAY 2

MORNING BEACH WALK IN HAWAII

Utah is 3 hours ahead of Hawaii. So we went to bed early and woke up really early everyday. We were awake around 5 or 6 everyday. It was nice though because we could get our day started early and fit a lot of fun things in. We also got to enjoy beautiful morning walks on the beach.

While Nate was at the gym, Ruby and I explored the resort.

Later we went to a little mall to find Nate some sunglasses and Ruby some flip-flops for the week. It was really weird seeing all the Halloween decorations in such a sunny, tropical place. It didn't feel like it was even close to Halloween there!

ALOHA MIXED PLATE

This place had really high reviews. It had traditional Hawaiian dishes and the setting was perfect. It was right on the beach in an open-air patio. I got swordfish and I don't remember what Nate got. Later I was reading and pregnant women aren't supposed to eat swordfish! Oops!

Our first experience with Hawaiian shave ice! So good!

Beach time!

The resort had a little kids swim area with a water slide and several little kid pools. Ruby loved the water slide, Nate and I had to go down it with her because she wasn't big enough but it was fun for us too! We ordered food at the resort and ate it at the pool. What a life!

DAY 3

SWAN COURT BREAKFAST

Every morning the resort had a breakfast. It was called the Swan Court Breakfast because it was open to a pond where a bunch of swans swim. It was really cool! We went to it twice and it was soooo yummy!

SNORKEL BOB'S & DIVE MAUI

Nate booked a spear fishing trip for himself so he wanted to get a good snorkel and a GoPro. Snorkel Bob's and Dive Maui were the highest rated places to get those two things so we stopped by them both.

DIVE MAUI

There's something about Hawaii that I love, I think it's because everyone is so laid back and nice. This is a great example of that...we went to this dive shop to get a GoPro. It was a teeny tiny place and there was one guy running it sitting at an extremely cluttered desk. Nate told him what he wanted and the guy came out from behind the desk to help him. He had no shoes on and very unkept feet (long toenails, lots of callouses, etc.). He made nothing of it, he walked around and helped Nate like that the whole time. It cracked me up!

COOL CAT CAFE

This place was recommended to us by several people and also online. We were trying to fit so many food places into such a small amount of time that when we went here I was stuffed! I pretty much felt that way the whole time we were in Hawaii!

There was constantly a rainbow in the sky while we were in Hawaii. It was so beautiful. There was a light mist of rain a lot of the time also. I loved the weather there this time of year. It wasn't too hot or too cold.

DRUMS OF THE PACIFIC LUAU

Nate booked us a Luau. It was at our hotel so it was very convenient. The food was delicious and the entertainment was fun. Ruby loved the dancers and wanted to be up on the stage so bad. Luckily they invited anyone who wanted to come up and learn the Hula on the stage. Ruby and I went up there and she was completely unafraid! I was really surprised because she's normally really shy when people are watching her. She did the Hula perfectly and then didn't want to get off the stage. It was really cute.

DAY 4

KA'ANAPALI BEACH

While Nathan was on his spearfishing adventure, Ruby and I walked along the Kaanapali beach and found a great spot to play in the sand and play in the water.

We didn't bring any sand toys so I made sure to pack a cup and spoon from the hotel for Ruby to dig around in the sand with. To our surprise a little girl came up to Ruby with her mom and gave her a big bag of sand toys! The mom explained they were leaving that day and couldn't bring the toys back with them. It was the sweetest thing! I asked where they were from and she said Utah! What are the chances?!

When we left Ruby gave those toys to another little boy. I hope they keep the tradition going.

Several people were so sweet to Ruby. This lady was very kind and gave Ruby a shell.

NATHAN'S SPEARFISHING ADVENTURE

Here's Nathan's account of what happened...

"One of the top things to do according to trip advisor was a spear-fishing outing. I bought the ticket, and showed up at their store the next morning at 7am. The guide was a big husky kid in his early 20s, and it was just me and some guy about my age from California. The first 2 hours was just sitting in their shop getting a lesson from the guide about general info; how the spear gun worked, what fish we can shoot, what we can't shoot, etc. Then, we spent 2 full hours in the water. We each had a wetsuit and fins on, and then a snorkel - no boat. We just took turns holding the gun and if we saw something to shoot you dive down and hold onto the bottom and hope that it swims close enough to take a shot. I took several shots over the 2 hours but didn't hit anything, the guide shot several big groupers. When we shot something we just hooked it onto a chain connected to the buoy we were dragging, so these bloody fish were just being pulled about 50 feet behind us. That's why spear fisherman see sharks so often, but luckily we didn't see any."

He also told me they had to hold their breath a long time (sometimes more than 3 mins at a time) to get to the bottom of the ocean, hold onto a rock and sit there till you see something you can shoot. They talked so much about breathing in the beginning because the instructor guy said people think they can only hold their breath for a short period of time but we are actually not using the full capacity of our lungs and we can hold it much longer. He said once the panic of "I need air" sets in you can calm yourself and hold your breath a lot longer than that.

It sounds completely insane, and Nate said he was done after the first hour out there. I think I would have passed out!

ULULANI'S HAWAIIAN SHAVE ICE

We got Hawaiian shave ice almost everyday we were there! Ruby loved it.

There was a rope bridge that swayed and moved when you walked across it. Ruby loved running across it, back and forth, back and forth. One night I dared Nathan to jump off the bridge into the pool below. He did it but scraped up his back pretty bad! Sorry babe!

BABY BEACH

We found this little beach called Baby Beach.

It is a locals place, we parked in an alley (there wasn't any official parking).

It is protected by an exposed coral reef that breaks the waves making a perfectly calm area for little ones to splash in the water. It was my favorite beach that we went to because I wasn't worried that Ruby would get swept away by the waves the whole time!

It was also awesome for snorkeling since it was so shallow and had a huge coral reef. I was too scared to go out too far (that was my first time snorkeling) but Nate went out really far (almost to where the coral reef breaks the waves) and saw two sea turtles! He captured them on his GoPro.

We stayed there till in was dark and Ruby still didn't want to leave.

STAR NOODLE

This place had some of the highest reviews of places to eat. Nate was really excited because the shrimp was "as big as his arm" as he said (not really but it was pretty big).

DAY 5

MOLOKINI CRATER & TURTLE TOWN

Nathan booked us a catamaran ride. It took us out to the Molokini Crater. It's a crescent-shaped, partially submerged volcanic crater. It took about an hour to get there. When we were there Nathan watched Ruby on the boat while I snorkeled, I lost track of time and Nate wasn't able to snorkel. I saw a bunch of tropical fish that I've never seen up close before. It was such a cool experience.

They took us to a place called Turtle Town off of Maluaka beach. It is called Turtle Town because it's known for it's high population of Hawaiian green sea turtles. Nathan snorkeled most of the time at this location and saw two huge turtles. I was able to snorkel a little here but didn't see any turtles...

Ruby taking a nap while Daddy snorkeled at Turtle Town.

On our way back the crew put up the sail and we did some sailing. It was extremely windy where they took us!

FRUIT STAND

We bought a pineapple at a fruit stand next to Leoda's Kitchen and it was 15 bucks!!! We felt completely ripped off. The next day we went to the grocery store and the pineapples were like 4 bucks a piece! What a joke.

LEODA'S KITCHEN & PIE SHOP

Famous for their sandwiches, salads and sweet and savory pies. We really liked this place, we came here twice!

EVENING BEACH RUN

We hung out at the beach A TON! One, because it was just a few steps outside our hotel room, and two, Ruby absolutely loved it! Some days we went 2-3 times because Ruby begged us. She loves the water and sand. If we lived in Hawaii we would be at the beach everyday.

It broke my heart when we got home and she asked me everyday if we could go to the beach. This went on for weeks. :( I had to tell her the beaches are closed here...there is snow instead of sand here!

ONO TACOS FOR DINNER

DAY 6

HO'OKIPA LOOKOUT

The road to hana is a very popular tourist thing to do while in Maui. Nathan and I really wanted to do but the whole drive is 52 miles and averages 25 mph the whole way so it takes a long time to do. We didn't think Ruby would love being strapped in her carseat the whole time so we opted out.

We did however check out one of it's stops, the Ho'okipa lookout. It's where some of the best surfing in Maui takes place, the waves can get really big here and they recommend that you do not surf here unless you are experienced and can go with a local.

This was one of my favorite spots because there was rocks blocking the huge waves which created a wade pool that Ruby loved to play in. There were a ton of windsurfers and kite boarders too.

EXPLORING MAUI

Instead of doing the road to hana we decided just to drive around Maui and explore. It was gorgeous! It's very green, there are a lot of pastures, old cemeteries, churches and we even drove past a polo competition!

HALEAKALA

We drove to the top of Haleakala, which is a huge volcano that formed more than 75% of the island of Maui. It rises to 10,000 ft and gets very cold as you get close to the top. There was a beautiful view of both sides of the island that we pulled off to the side of the road to take pictures of. As we were heading up there were bikers coming down the windy roads. Nathan said next time we go to Maui that is one thing he wants to make sure and do. We also heard that there is an astrologist from NASA that does start tours at the top of Haleakala. That would be amazing! I'm sure the stars looks awesome!